Even with the advent of the Internet, vast amounts of information are still being conveyed today by voice. Voice has the advantages of being personable, flexible, fast, and with the advent of cell and satellite phones, these conversations are capable of being accomplished from almost any location in the globe.
A problem associated with transfer of information by voice is that this information must be transcribed. Transcription is a process that involves the human element and is therefore a source of error. This error can be on either end of the conversation and result from problems such as pronunciation, hearing, and perception, just to name a few. On top of these problems, add distractions such as driving or walking at the same time, which are common tasks that must be managed by the typical cell phone user. These additional tasks can prove to be a distraction to the participants of the voice conversation. Conversely, the conversation can also prove to be a distraction to one performing these additional tasks. The conversation, if too distracting, may even pose a danger to one attempting to perform these additional tasks.
In cases where accuracy is important, a record of the voice conversation would be helpful. Where the information that is conveyed is either complex, unfamiliar, difficult to remember, or is presented in a manner that makes it difficult to record the information, a record of the conversation would be helpful. Difficulty in recording conversations may result from calling from a location where recording information is difficult such as when calling from a cell phone while driving. A record of the conversation in this case would be helpful to refer back too.
Previously, in cases where it was crucial that information was transcribed accurately, such as in brokerage firms and banks, all conversations with customers were routinely recorded. This information was not intended to be referred to by users of the system on a day-to-day basis, but instead was intended to be available only if something went wrong. In this case, these phone records could be painstakingly retrieved.
There is a present need for systems for recording voice conversations and organizing these voice data files and storing them in a manner that allows them to be readily accessed. These voice-recording systems should not require large capital expenditures on hardware or software and should be compatible with existing technologies. Finally, these voice-recording systems should be reliable and easy to operate so that these systems can seamlessly be integrated into a wide variety of different applications.